“Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack.”

—  Virginia Woolf

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and hav…" by Virginia Woolf?
Virginia Woolf photo
Virginia Woolf382
English writer 1882–1941

Related quotes

Lorrie Moore photo

“It is like having a book out from the library.
It is like constantly having a book out from the library.”

Lorrie Moore (1957) American writer

Source: Self-Help

Anatole France photo

“Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have lent me.”

Anatole France (1844–1924) French writer

Peter Greenaway photo

“I want to describe the Body as a Book, a Book as a Body, and this Body and this Book will be the first Volume of Thirteen Volumes.”

Peter Greenaway (1942) British film director

From the first book, "The Agenda"
The Pillow Book

Alberto Manguel photo

“Books read in a public library never have the same flavour as books read in the attic or the kitchen.”

Alberto Manguel (1948) writer

Private Reading, p. 152.
A History of Reading (1996)

Sydney Smith quote: “He was a one-book man. Some men have only one book in them; others, a library.”
Sydney Smith photo

“He was a one-book man. Some men have only one book in them; others, a library.”

Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English writer and clergyman

Vol. I, ch. 11
Lady Holland's Memoir (1855)

Desiderius Erasmus photo

“Do not be guilty of possessing a library of learned books while lacking learning yourself.”

Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, and theologian

Letter to Christian Northoff (1497), as translated in Collected Works of Erasmus (1974), p. 115

“You took out a book on blow-job technique from the British Library? They shouldn't have books like that in there!”

Sarra Manning (1950) British writer

Source: You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

Jorge Luis Borges photo

“The fact is that poetry is not the books in the library... Poetry is the encounter of the reader with the book, the discovery of the book.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

"Poetry" (1977)

“To take another simile [that the brain is like a machine], if we imagine a great library containing books which have a vast number of cross references one to another, then should one whole shelf be burned, it might be possible to reconstruct the lost books -- but somewhat less perfectly than at first.”

Colin Cherry (1914–1979) British scientist

Source: On Human Communication (1957), On Cognition and Recognition, p. 302

Herman Melville photo

“Though public libraries have an imposing air, and doubtless contain invaluable volumes, yet, somehow, the books that prove most agreeable, grateful, and companionable, are those we pick up by chance here and there; those which seem put into our hands by Providence; those which pretend to little, but abound in much.”

Herman Melville book White-Jacket

Source: White-Jacket (1850), Ch. 41

Related topics